USD 385 gets new BOE vice-president, increases LOB

Friday

Jul 18, 2014 at 8:15 AM

Reorganization of the school board

Cindy Hicks/TG correspondent

The Andover School Board has a new vice-president for the coming year, after voting on board organization at its regular monthly meeting on Monday. Melinda Fritze replaces Matt Forney, who has served as the board vice-president for two years. Fritze has served on the school board for the past three years, as the at-large member. The board voted to keep Scott Wilson as president, Jamie Bohannon as clerk and Sherame Kneisel as treasurer. Nicole Gibbs, the district’s new director of communications, will serve at the assistant clerk. At the same meeting, the board also voted to increase its local option budget (LOB) from 31 percent to 33 percent for one year. This increases the LOB by about $600,000. The school board is allowed to make the temporary increase, but voters would have to decide whether to make it a permanent increase. The board approved the publishing of the 2014-15 budget that included the higher LOB. A public hearing will be set for August, along with a vote to adopt the budget. The new budget includes a decrease in the mill levy of over 2 mills. This would equate to a savings of about $22 in taxes on a $100,000 house. “I think it is important for everyone to know what a responsible decision this is as we continue to try and maintain our high level of education,” said Josh Wells, school board member. “It is not often a board can vote to increase an LOB and still property taxes go down for the district tax payers.”